A Fine Line

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I caught the movie Mr. Brooks the other night - Kevin Costner was good in it - Demi Moore has aged well....

The movie was based on a man with split personalities and when it began I was sort of on the fence about the mental illness angle. The movie was actually quite well done and scared the hell out of me at the end - I swear - I had Bruce-bumps.

Regardless, it got me thinking about the fine line between sanity and insanity. It also helped me to recognize some of the traits in myself and in those around me. To be honest, we are all teetering on an edge. For instance:

1). My son Sam has to close all the shades in the house so the robbers can't look in.

2). My boy Jake swings on emotions that carry him to the top of the mountain and drop him hard on the valley floor - and God help all of us if he doesn't have pizza on Wednesday night.

3). My son Matt has been convinced that he was dying from a hornet sting, and a cancerous lump on his neck. Neither proved true - but he was prepared for the worst - he was seen drafting his last will and testament.

4). My wife is to blame for a lot of this - she must speak with her mother at ten each night - ten minutes late and EMT is called. They speak in code just in case one of them has a robber in their midst.

5). Me? I'm perfectly sane and everyone knows that!

Seriously, my wife works with some real nut jobs - people who pull to the side of the road to weep before starting their day. We are all obsessive-compulsive or attention-deficit disorder-er sufferers who are one doctor visit away from being filled with Prozac, or who's brains are vacuumed out like Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Recently I've taken to carrying hand sanitizer around. If I shake someones hand, I immediately think of getting the hand sanitizer before I go near my mouth.

All of my life I have been a slave to routine after routine. How else do you explain pasta every Sunday? Pizza night on Wednesday? Doing the laundry every other day? Nothing on the 'fridge? Nothing out of place?

I'm just worried about my boys - where do they get it from?

Comments

deafjeff said…
I often think I'm nuts, but after talking too you and reading some of your shit, I'm normal man. Fat as hell, but not insane. My only ritual is pissing after rising.
26 August, 2008
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